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Burch album imagines Jimmie Rodgers' 'musical bio'

Jimmie Rodgers is often referred to as the “father of country music,” but his songs also incorporated the sounds of blues, jazz and Tin Pan Alley pop. Rodgers’ expansive musical vision is saluted on Nashville-based Paul Burch’s new album, “Meridian Rising” (Plowboy Records), which presents “an imagined musical autobiography” of the singing brakeman.

Paul Burch(Photo: Emily Beaver/Special to The Clarion-Ledger)

Other artists have recorded musical tributes to Rodgers, most notably Merle Haggard. Burch’s project is unique, though, in that addresses the world Rodgers inhabited rather than simply covering his songs.

The 20 original compositions touch upon a wide array of Rodgers’ experiences — working on the vaudeville circuit, his penchants for gambling and relentless wandering, life during the Depression and his struggles with tuberculosis, which took his life at 35. Rodgers saw his share of troubles, but the tone of the record — both lyrically and musically — reflects what Burch sees as Rodgers’ “reckless optimism.”

Rodgers’ recordings encompassed a wide range of styles, with collaborators including Louis Armstrong, and Burch was particularly inspired by his work with bluesman Clifford Gibson.

“It’s the only time Jimmie Rodgers recorded with a dedicated blues guitar player, and the way he was backing up Rodgers reminded me a bit of Robert Johnson’s style, doing almost like piano style licks,” says Burch.

“I thought that collaboration was a musical representation of Rodger’s wide thinking about music. He wasn’t old timey at all, and that’s what got me interesting in thinking about writing from his point of view.”

“Rather than tell his story through his music, I wanted to do it through the music of the time, such as Duke Ellington or the Mississippi Sheiks. That way I could be more playful with it. He had a limited vocabulary on guitar, but if you open up his world you have a wide palette of sounds.”

That wide palette is evident on the diverse arrangements, which find Burch’s band the WPA Ballclub supplemented by guests including Tim O’Brien and Jon Langford. The musical spirit of Rodgers is retained by employing some of his typical song structures, with Burch tipping his hat to the “blue yodeler” via falsetto whoops.

The opening track, “Meridian,” is one of many featuring the clarinet, while others evoke Hawaiian music (“Sorry I Can’t Stay”), Django Reinhardt-style swing (“To Paris (with regrets)"), traditional New Orleans jazz (“Didn’t He Ramble”) and the neo-honky tonk sound (“Fast Fuse Blues”) with which Burch is most often associated.

Burch’s extensive research for the project, which took a year to record, is evidenced in the long liner notes accompanying the CD, and even more information about Rodgers and the inspirations for Burch’s individual songs is available on Burch’s website (paulburch.com).

Burch acknowledges that attempting to inhabit Rodgers’ persona is as “an outrageous concept,” and expresses hopes that it will be “fun to listen to whether or not you were interested in Jimmie Rodger’s life and music.” He’s succeeded masterfully in both regards, and one hopes that he’s soon able to bring his vision of Rodgers’ world to Mississippi.

Scott Barretta is the host of "Highway 61," which airs on MPB on Saturday at 10 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m.